TU seems to like multiple cards reporting

[masscredit]

My TU score goes up everytime I let 3 or more cards report and then it goes down when there is just one. It went up to 728 when I had a bunch of cards reporting in January then down to 720 with one. I now have 3 cards reporting and it's up to 729. I expect it to go down again when there is one in a few weeks. 

[RonM21]

That's an interesting data point if it is true. THis would be the first I heard of that.

[masscredit]

I was surprised when I first saw it happen. I had 7 of the 8 cards that I had in January reporting when I saw it go up to 728. It went down as I brought the number down to 1 and then up to 3.

My TU score history since December -

11/09 - 717 - 1 card 
01/01 - 728 - 7 of 8 cards reporting
01/17 - 724
02/03 - 720 
03/06 - 722
04/05 - 729 - 3 cards 

I'm going to go back to 1 to see if it goes down again. 

[Revelate]

Aren't some of your accounts AU's if I recall correctly?  Make sure it wasn't an AU card reporting the balance.

I've never ever heard this otherwise, it seems unlikely.

[masscredit]

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@Revelate wrote:

Aren't some of your accounts AU's if I recall correctly?  Make sure it wasn't an AU card reporting the balance.

I've never ever heard this otherwise, it seems unlikely.

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Nope. They are all mine. I'll post my results when I go back to 2 cards reporting in a few weeks. 

[masscredit]

Update- Currently have one card reporting a $1336.00 balance. That is 9% of that card's credit limit and 2% total utilization (rounded up). The score is still 729. The balance on the one card that usually reports is usually in the $700. - $800. range. So I'll see if the score goes down when the balance drops. Maybe the higher balance on one card is my sweet spot for TU. i'll know that in two weeks.

Or, it's one of those things that just changes once in awhile and I don't know why. 

[NRB525]

On my TU, usually all cards have been reporting, and that means over 20 cards recently. As the count of cards at zero balance goes to 2, 3, or 4 cards, the score changes 1 to 3, sometimes a 4 point change at each of those steps, then ratchets back the other way as those zeros start picking up balances. However, my TU measures are on the myFICO monitoring, and I've got 25 potential triggers throughout a month now. I'm able to line those up in real time to when I see the cards report (in or out of zero) on EX or EQ.

While I agree your scores are changing somewhat by the number of cards reporting, it looks like you are only getting one score a month. There's potentially other things going on during the month that contribute to the TU changes, and the TU changes aren't too large. Similar to mine, there is some effect within a range of number of cards reporting, but not a huge change.

[masscredit]

I've been pulling my TU score more often over the last few months. I check to see if balances have posted a few days after the statements close (or $0 if I paid them off) then check the score to see if there was a change. It's not a big difference but I'm trying to fine tune each one so I know what I need to do to get the best score at each credit bureau. A few points can be the difference between one rate and another. Or, I just feel better when I see it. 🙂

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@masscredit wrote:

I've been pulling my TU score more often over the last few months. I check to see if balances have posted a few days after the statements close (or $0 if I paid them off) then check the score to see if there was a change. It's not a big difference but I'm trying to fine tune each one so I know what I need to do to get the best score at each credit bureau. A few points can be the difference between one rate and another. Or, I just feel better when I see it. 🙂

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I would expect you profile to likely be neutral in scoring with 1 to 3 cards reporting - as long as aggregate utilization is held under 9% and each of the cards reporting balances has a relatively low utilization.